By Albatross
July 1 2004

Hartlepool United forward Paul Robinson has turned down the offer of a six month deal at Victoria Park, and has instead dropped two divisions to sign for Conference outfit York City. He started last season on fire - so where did it all go wrong? As yet (11am) there hasn't been an announcement from the Pools end, but certainly it's being reported on various York City sites that this is a done deal.

So it's farewell to Robbo, a player already well on the way to a Golf-Bag full of clubs. York will be the tenth team that he's played for, having plied his trade at Darlington, Newcastle, Wimbledon, Burnley, Dundee United, Grimsby, Carlisle and Blackpool in addition to Hartlepool.

It seems that in common with many of those clubs, Pools fans are looking at Robinson and wondering where it all went wrong. This was a player that commanded a six figure fee when Newcastle signed him as a 19 year old, someone that had cost Wimbledon £1.5million a couple of years later. The initial signs were good - he impressed in a trial period, signed a permanent deal, and made an immediate impression in front of goal. He scored in the opening two games of the season, at Peterborough and Sheffield Wednesday, and before long had knocked in a hat-trick as we crushed Grimsby to take his tally to seven in eight games.

However, things were soon to go pear shaped. He had to be substituted early on against Blackpool in October, and although he came off the bench in the next game to score the winner at Chesterfield, that would prove to be his last goal for the club. With form and fitness struggling, he was finding life tough - and found himself overtaken in the pecking order as Cooper shuffled his pack and signed Joel Porter.

Although Robinson did pick up in performances towards the end of the season, the goals wouldn't come - and with the re-emergence of Adam Boyd, our options up front were looking much healthier as well. Having failed to make much impression in the second half of the season - although admittedly he was mainly used as a substitute - Cooper decided that if Robbo wanted to stay at the club, he'd have to prove himself all over again. A six month deal was all that was on the table.

With the Sunderland-born Robinson wanting to stay in the North-East, his options were somewhat limited. There were rumours that Yeovil were interested - and Robinson himself claimed to have interest from higher division clubs; but it looked increasingly likely that he'd bite the bullet and try and earn a longer deal at Victoria Park.

Instead, he's dropped into the Conference with York - the lure of a two year deal with a relatively local club proving too much for him to turn down. Minstermen boss Chris Brass - who played with Robinson during his time on loan at Burnley - is highly delighted, and believes that Robinson is the player they need to fire them back into the league. Is he? Well, there's no doubting that when he's on form he will score goals; he has the skill to make defences look stupid at times, and the drop in standard may well mean he is a revelation. However, as Pools fans saw after October, when things aren't going right for him he really struggles, with confidence plummeting rapidly. A good start to the season and he could be leading scorer in the division - a poor start, and York may regret offering him two years. Only time will tell.